Tuesday March 25, 2014-Ron Hoover Oasis RV Park

As you know, we are doing our best to spend time with as many of our old friends as we can, in the short time we have here this year. Thursday, we went to eat at the La Azteca Restaurant in Texas City. This restaurant is the former Bravo's Restaurant on Palmer Hwy. When Bravo's closed, several of the employees pooled their monies and bought the place, and they do an excellent job! We had a great time and had a very nice visit with our friends. 

Friday we went shopping at the new Sam's and Wal Mart stores that we haven't been in. There, we picked up one of the ready-made pizzas and after Stella got it home and jazzed it up a bit, it was delicious! 

Saturday we met Mike and Patrice at the Center Buffet, an oriental restaurant that we have eaten at several times before. Again, the food was good but the company was even better. It is so nice to be able to spend time with friends, although we did tie up the table for almost two hours! It wasn't that busy and it's a huge restaurant! 

Sunday and Monday was spent working on our storage shed to clean it out. We are making good progress and will have it done this week. Some of the camping gear that we don't use was given to other patrons of our park and most went very fast. I'm glad that someone is getting use from our old "stuff".

This morning, I was up early to get ready to go to the new Galveston County courthouse to testify in a very old (1985)murder case. My only involvement was to find and recover the skeleton remains of the victim. Luckily for me, I wrote a good report and remembered a lot of the case, so my testimony went well. I was a bit rusty but came through unscathed. Bruised the old ego a time or two but no cuts. Surprisingly, I was on the witness stand for almost two hours. This case will probably go on for most of the week but when I find out the verdict, I'll let you know.

I saw several old friends while at the courthouse, including the judge in the case. I worked several cases when he was working at the District Attorney's office. Two of the main people that I wanted to see were FBI Agent Richard Rennison and Lt. Tommy Hansen, the two leading investigators in this case but they were not due to testify until the afternoon session and I didn't want to stick around that long. I'll just keep up with the case on news media. 

It felt good to dress up in my Police Detective duds again. Felt good but I'm still very happily RETIRED!! Not changing that for anything. I enjoyed the investigations and made some good friends but don't want to go back!

So long.

Wednesday March 19, 2014-Ron Hoover Oasis RV Park

Yesterday was our first full day here and I put it to good use. I spoke to the Chief of Police at Manvel PD and learned that I could qualify with my pistol at the Alvin Community College to satisfy this requirement for my Retired Peace Officer "license", so I can possess and carry a handgun in states that don't recognize a Texas concealed handgun license. I was able to go to the college and set  the qualification tomorrow morning. I also took the time to visit with other friends in the area before returning home.

While on my way to Alvin and Manvel, I stopped along the way to capture some Munzees.There were four or five along State Hwy. 6 that I easily capped, including the one on the plaque pictured below.

I am from this area and lived here most of my life. I have always known about the blimp base in Hitchcock and have been to it many times. I even had an aunt and uncle that lived out there in one of the old houses from the base, but I never saw this plaque, commemorating the base until today. Someone has deployed a Munzee on the back of this, as well as several others along highway 6. I got all of them, but this one was special. 

There was another one that brought back memories for me, not because of the plaque or it's subject but because of the location. When I was a kid, my Dad took us to Colorado for vacations several years in a row. One year, probably 1958 or 1959, we had just left Galveston on vacation when the car had a problem with the fan belt. Daddy stopped the car at a roadside park rest area and made repairs and we continued on our trip. 

We went to Texas City to a band concert for Tyler's band. It was a UIL (University Interscholastic League) practice concert and they did very well. It was led off by the junior high school band, them the high school symphonic band and finally the ensemble band that Tyler is a member of. It was pretty short and when it was over we took Tyler and his girlfriend Loren out to eat. 

This morning I went over to Alvin Community College and qualified and got my new ID card with my new "Qualified, Honorably Retired Peace Officer" notation on it. Now I am legal to carry and possess a handgun throughout the United States. Hopefully this will keep me out of trouble on our travels.

We went over to Kim's house this evening for Stella to fix her goulash that Tyler and Cameron LOVE! She also took our dirty clothes to wash in Kim's new washer and dryer. They are the large size, but it still took entirely too long to get done, so I think we'll stick to our laundromat trips to get our clothes clean. That also pretty much took care of the question of whether we want a washer and dryer in the trailer. They are half the size of the residential ones that Kim has, so I think the decision is made. Of course, I can easily be outvoted by the CEO of this outfit (Stella), so there ya go...

So long.

Monday March 17, 2014-Moving Day-Montgomery KOA to Ron Hoover Oasis RV Park

Will this cold weather never leave? It was in the low 40's this morning but I couldn't put it off and went outside in the cool morning air and got started. Once I got busy, it wasn't that bad and we were ready to go about 10 AM. 

After a short stop at the office to pay for our electricity, we were on the road again (imagine Willy singing). We did well on the highway for about 20 miles before traffic stopped. We weren't stopped long, but it still kills your time when you are in stop and go all the way through downtown Houston. If you're not familiar with Houston, that's about 15 miles. The trip of about 90 miles actually took 2 1/2 hours. There were a couple of minor accidents and disabled vehicles, but it was an uneventful trip for the most part. I only had to deploy the air horn a couple of times.

After a good setup, we had just come inside for me to finish the set up for the television when our friend Harry dropped by for a visit. It was good to see one of our old friends from this area and we made plans to get together with Harry and Judy later for supper. We are looking forward to getting together with several of our friends while we're down here.

We went by Kim's house in the afternoon and found only Cam at home. He was outside playing catch with some of the neighbor kids. Since he was busy, we didn't stay very long and came on back home. I did stop and bought Stella some dead chicken at KFC. She has been wanting some fried chicken so I delivered for her.

So long.

Sunday March 16, 2014-Montgomery KOA

We went down to Rayford Crossing on Sunday to meet our friend Bill and Tommy and Susan to spend more time with our friends before leaving tomorrow. We decided to eat soon after we arrived, so we all loaded up in my truck and off we went. It's impossible to get a bad meal at Mel's Country Cafe, and today was no exception.

 Stella and I split one of the famous Mel's Burgers consisting of one pound of meat and a half pound of bacon! Even though we split the burger, we brought some home.

This is the small chicken fried steak! As you can see, it covers over half of the plate. Small indeed! Bill certainly had plenty of food.

Tommy and Susan had the catfish dinner and, like us, they had food to bring home. 

When we finished eating, we waddled back to the truck. It's a good thing I have a big truck! We drove through the new Exxon world headquarters that is being built just south west of Rayford/Sawdust. This place is immense! Of course, the buildings are surrounded by fencing with security in place to keep people out, but it is an amazing place. The whole area will be a mini Woodlands, with houses, apartments and condos that are still under construction with commercial buildings to come.

We returned to Rayford where we hung out in Tommy and Susan's Allegro Bus. Bill brought their new puppy Maya over to meet us. She is a handful but Tommy plans to help Bill train her this week while he is at Rayford.

Bill has a new propane powered firepit that he brought over. We three guys braved the cold wind and sat outside for awhile but it didn't take long until we had to go back inside. I'm sure that the firepit will work well but today it was just too cold and windy. We should have time to visit with our friends again before we leave. 

So long.

Saturday March 15, 2014-Montgomery KOA

We're winding up our time here at the Montgomery KOA and visiting more friends. We're moving down to the Ron Hoover Oasis RV Park in La Marque on Monday and spent as much time with friends as we could.

We went down to Rayford Crossing in Spring to see Tommy before he went back home to do a quick job down there. Of course, he enticed Stella with his Keurig coffee maker and forced me to take an orange drink before we went down to see Mack and Mattie. It was good to see them again and we visited with other friends as they walked by, including park owner/maintenance man Billy. It was good to see so many of our old friends at the park where we once lived.

Friday morning I had a meeting with two Assistant District Attorneys from Galveston. I am under subpoena for a murder trial on a case dating back to 1985! My only involvement was to investigate and recover the skeleton near the Galveston Causeway. We are scheduled to go to trial on the 24th and I warned them that if the case is postponed I won't be in the state until October, so I hope everything goes off as planned. This was an aggravating case for me and I hope that justice is served.

Friday evening we met our friends from Inks Lake, Chip and Bunky at the El Bosque Mexican Restaurant in Conroe. It was good to see them again and we spent a couple of hours catching up with them. 

I've gotta tell you about our Garmin letting us down today. Stella programmed in the restaurant and it took us out into the country when we should have stopped in town. It doesn't happen often, and it could have been worse, we could have been pulling the trailer! Luckily we had left home a bit early and made it only a couple of minutes late. 

So long.

Tuesday March 11, 2014-Montgomery KOA

Yesterday was a very slow day around here. Stella washed our clothes while I took care of some things that I need to get done. I called the new Chief of Police in Manvel to find out what I need to do to obtain a letter from him after I qualify with my weapon. He told me the steps that I need to do, so now I will move forward.

Today we met Mack and Mattigene Willoughby, our friends from Indianapolis, to have lunch at one of Stella's favorite restaurants, Pitmaster Barbecue in Spring. We had a nice meal with them and a nice long visit. Sadly, we won't be able to hook up with them this year when we travel near Indy, but we'll be back down here in the fall, so maybe we can get together here again.

I had gotten in contact with one of my high school classmates, Donna Mathis, and learned that she and her husband live near the park. We had been trying to get together for a visit but it just hadn't worked out. Today everything fell into place and she agreed to come over here for some coffee and a visit. As it turns out, she worked for many years at another Galveston county bank, so she and Stella had a lot in common. We had a nice chat, reminiscing about the "old days" and talked a little bit about our 1965 class reunion next year. I'm looking forward to it.

Nice to keep in touch with old friends.

So long.

Sunday March 9, 2014-Montgomery KOA

Saturday we went over to the huge baseball complex in Katy for a couple of Cameron baseball games. I don't understand why they can't figure out a way to schedule the games better. Cam's team didn't start playing until 5 PM but then played their second game at 7. Why can't they give them more time between games, at least an hour. That way the boys could rest and get a bite to eat and their grandparents could visit with friends that live in the area...

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Cam did very well at bat, with a single (stranded on base), a double (later scored) and a long fly out that scored a run. 

He played well at first base and got several players out when they hit a single. He is a good player and I'm told that he likes playing first base best. He also plays third base as well as a relief pitcher.

Here he is pitching. in his last tournament, he came within one batter of pitching a no hitter. In the first inning that he pitched tonight, he retired the side on 7 pitches!

They won the first game 6-0 but lost the second 2-1 in a heart-breaker. They had gone into the final inning with the score tied and the other team got a good hit and scored the winning run. Bummer!

It started to rain lightly near the end of the game and by the time we left it was raining hard. It rained all night and tomorrow's games were cancelled so we didn't get to see him play any more.

We took some back roads when we came home, following the Garmin GPS. It was kind of spooky driving down unfamiliar roads in the rainy dark weather but we made it okay.

We didn't do too much on Sunday. We did remember to reset our clocks to daylight savings time. Our friends and south Texas chapter leaders, Tom and Marti called, so we made a date to meet them this afternoon at the El Palenque Mexican restaurant. This is our first Mexican food meal since we've been down here and it was Good! Not only that, but we got to catch up with Tom and Marti and the events in their life. They are building their retirement home and have a countdown going until retirement. I am excited for them and know exactly what they are going through right now. We hope to get together with them next year when they begin their retirement adventures. We will see them again in October at the regional rally in Amana Iowa. 

Fun times!

So long.